A Threefold Cord
by KCS
Summary: Written for LiveJournal's comm 3sentence: objective is to choose a threesome and write fifty mini-stories for fifty one-word prompts, in fifty sentences. Warning only for excessive use of semicolons and compound-complex sentence structure. All plot bunnies up for grabs if you like. Gen, Kirk-Spock-McCoy.


**Sentences for**: LiveJournal's comm **3sentence**  
**Fandom**: Star Trek TOS  
**Threesome Chosen**: Kirk, Spock, McCoy  
**Rating**: G  
**Spoilers**: Anything in the TOS canon is fair game  
**Summary**: 50 sentences for 50 one-word prompts, each required to center around the threesome chosen for the prompt table. I tried to use variety and give each of the three equal or nearly equal footing in each sentence - and it's harder than you'd think! :)  
**A/N**: As always, any sentences are up for grabs if the plot bunny strikes you; no need to ask my permission first. Credit for the idea would be lovely but not necessary unless you're quoting me. Also, what the heck are you doing, eating my lj-cuts, lj? I hate coding!

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01 – Harmony

Jim Kirk couldn't carry a tune if his life depended on it, and in this case it actually did, in this music-based language of the hostiles; fortunate, that both Spock and McCoy were quite passable baritones (Captain, one need not excel at every ability to be a competent leader. Don't quit your day job, Jim.).

02 – Manners

McCoy was about to hypospray the diminutive ambassador despite Kirk's dubious assurances of having the situation under control, but instead he sat back and grinned as Vulcan strength pinned the small alien to the wall, toes dangling, and informed him that one more attack against the captain would land him in an escape pod bound for the nearest planet – class M or no.

03 – Sync

The eight-foot alien who'd decked him suddenly found its way barred by two blue-shirted figures and was stupid enough to think a physician and a Vulcan were soft peace-lovers; Kirk just lay under the table and laughed his head off for the next sixty seconds.

04 – Focus

Jim would never forget his first birthday after the fal-tor-pan had changed their lives forever: a large-print version of _A Tale of Two Cities_ from McCoy, a replacement pair of reading glasses from Spock – and the sheepish explanation that it had taken a bit for their memories to settle into the right heads.

05 – Leap

No one who'd been on the Observation Deck when their First Officer emerged soundlessly from the darkness behind two half-dozing figures and rumbled a deep "Good evening, Doctor, Captain," scaring both men half to death, ever believed that Vulcans had no sense of humor.

06 – Park (spoilers: _A_ _Piece of the Action_)

He'd irritatedly told Spock he had to be exaggerating about Jim's skills, but when after sixty seconds of spine-snapping lurches he was silently handed a plasticene bag from somewhere up front, he could only feebly give the Vulcan a grateful look and pray Jim never got his hands on a _hovercar_.

07 – Ride

When the _Enterprise_ discovered a planet devoted to the Old Earth concept of ancient amusement parks, McCoy spent a month's pay on a horrendously overpriced holo-camera; but it was so worth it, to immortalize Spock's catlike dismay when he realized the roller coaster his captain had coaxed him onto was a _water ride_.

08 – Cotton

His head appears to be stuffed with cotton, sounds filtering in muffled, but when his hearing registers two familiar voices (I believe he is regaining consciousness, Doctor. Shove over, Spock, you're distortin' my scans.) he smiles, because he knows he's safe.

09 – Candy

The crew of the _Enterprise-A_ were not entirely certain their commanding officers were sane, despite their prestige from recent events; for one thing, Captain Spock and Commander McCoy seemed to finish each other's sentences worse than a married couple – and for another, Captain Kirk continually insisted upon calling his favorite sweet a _marshmelon_.

10 – Frosting

The Captain's crankiness disappeared the fourth night of his McCoy-imposed diet; Scotty knew he'd be a dead man if he ever told the CMO who convinced him quite _logically_ to reprogram Selector Four to – just once – replicate German chocolate cake when the meal-card for salad was inserted.

11 – Hair

Impromptu overnights reveal all sorts of surprising details, and this was no exception; it took every ounce of self-control the captain had to keep a straight face, and McCoy didn't even try, only snickered muffledly into his sleeping bag – who knew that Vulcans very definitely _don't_ just wake up with every hair immaculately in place?

12 – Hold

"Captain, when I – yes, Doctor, if you will take his other arm – when I advised that a captain must never appear vulnerable before his crew, I did _not_ mean that he should insist upon remaining on duty for three straight shifts while fighting off Altarian flu. _Sir_."

13 – Picture

Their sleep schedules had been destroyed nine days ago, and because the other two had insisted he nap regularly for negotiations' sake he was the only one alert enough to pilot the shuttle; but it was worth a week of discomfort and stress when he looked behind him after liftoff just in time to see McCoy crash softly on the shoulder of his already-sleeping First Officer.

14 – Movie

To McCoy's disgust, Jim had practically memorized every cheap adventure flick in existence, while Spock's sole interest in them lay in pointing out the physical impossibilities of each scenario; so during ship's Movie Night, the crew indulgently ignored the swearing from the back row, and never asked why all three of their COs emerged with popcorn in their hair.

15 – Music

When informed that the First Officer had also gotten him a birthday gift (Jim's present to him was half drained at the moment, the reason he didn't even try to mumble an insult), he was at first surprised, and then stunned close to tears as the strings of a Vulcan lyre plucked out a surprisingly emotive version of the old earth song, "Georgia on My Mind."

16 – Paradise (as in, _This Side of_)

He'd seen the wrecked Transporter Room and the bruises Jim was trying to hide, but he knew the Vulcan's inhuman strength and so said nothing about either; even in his spore-altered induced rage, something illogically kept Spock from seriously harming his captain, and for that McCoy was grateful.

17 – Garden

Visits to Vulcan were rare, and carefully timed to be during the intimidating ambassador's absence, but Spock would forever remember with embarrassment the time Sarek returned unexpectedly and found the household having a three-and-a-half human ice cube fight in Amanda's rose garden.

18 – Feather

"I believe the Terran adage is _Avians of similar plumage tend to aggregate_?" Spock had commented sagaciously during their briefing regarding a First Contact's views on metropolises, and while the captain managed to keep a straight face, their CMO ruined it all by choking on his coffee.

19 – Cloud (spoilers: _Obsession_)

"Some people laze around on a sunny Georgia evenin' and see fluffy bunnies; in space, we get a _vampire_-cloud," he complains, and isn't really sorry about his flippancy when he receives two annoyed glares from his dining companions; it's too much fun to diffuse then tension between his Captain and First by pitting them together against himself.

20 – Dust

For three months, Starfleet sanctioned the search, and for another three so did the Vulcan Science Academy; but in the end, Ambassador Spock was forced to return to Terran Georgia, unable to bring more than a small urn of stardust from the region of space in which the Nexus had last been seen.

21 – Wedding (spoilers: _Amok Time_)

Though he'll never admit it, it's one of his favorite memories of their first five-year mission despite its horror – how many people in the galaxy can say they've been asked to be what amounts to a Vulcan groomsman?

22 – Band (as in _We_ _few, we happy few, we band of brothers_ [Shakespeare]; spoilers for _ST:V_)

The ties which bound three into one were exceptionally strong, the secret to a tri-une which had spanned decades and disaster and death – enough that a mentally imbalanced Vulcan had instantly recognized the futility of turning any one against the other two.

23 – Play

Whatever he was drinking when he invited them to Georgia, he has no idea; but upon his return from the grocery one frosty morning he only grins and rummages silently for a holo-camera; they both look just too precious sitting at that frilly table with a hot pink tea set, three dingy plush animals, and a beaming Joanna McCoy.

24 – Time (as in Amok)

So angry at both of them he could barely see straight, but seeing the utter brokenness in the empty eyes before him, he didn't have the heart to do anything but try to tell the Vulcan that Jim still lived.

25 - Spent (as in the definition _exhausted_)

Their Chief Science Officer was nothing less than a Vulcan workaholic, his entire Science department knew - and they also knew better than to do anything except wisely scuttle out of the department when their CMO re-entered, this time with reinforcements in the form of a frowning captain balancing two well-filled dinner trays and a lockdown code.

26 – Worship

Negotiations on this superstitious planet are tricky, but he's nearly mediated a treaty when the local witch-doctor begins to shriek about heretics; however, the man is no match for a combination of hypospray and nerve pinch, both of which are delivered in perfect synchronicity, allowing him to proceed without skipping a beat or even bothering to look around.

27 – Life

More relieved than he'd ever admit (he'd run the whole way, afraid to know which five of the seven had survived) to see McCoy helping a limping Vulcan from the Transporter Pad, he was then shocked to hear his CMO stand stiffly at attention, placing himself on report for insubordination.

28 – Pray

They were stuck in the transporter beam long enough for even Spock to get dizzy, but upon finally materializing he turned his attentions to an absolutely petrified Chief Medical Officer, who at first breathed a fervent prayer of relief and then promptly was sick all over his captain.

29 – Knees

He's not afraid, even kneeling on the deck of an Orion pirate freighter beside his CMO, hands bound behind them; because he's still got two good legs and McCoy's mouth to stack the odds in their favor (the fact that he can hear Spock _logically_ mowing down panicking Orions in the hall outside helps too).

30 – Zombie (spoilers: Spock's Brain)

Someday they'd probably be able to laugh about it, but for now, he wasn't surprised to receive a tentative comm at midnight asking for company; apparently he wasn't the only victim of recurring night terrors about brain surgery gone horrifically wrong.

31 – Skeleton

"Thank you for that most illuminating clarification, Captain. I had presumed the Doctor's unique soubriquet to be a reference to being an historical relic - really, Doctor, hurling the projectile of a bread roll at a fellow officer's head is hardly becoming in one of your..._advanced_ years."

32 – Closet

Upon discovering that his Chief Science and Medical Officers had smuggled one of the contraband into Science Lab Three ("for experimental purposes only, Captain" and "y'know I might be able to neuter the darn things, Jim"), he could only half-heartedly threaten to beam both of them – and their little furball too – into open space if he found one more tribble-litter in his sock drawer.

33 – Space

He knew they were both fibbing about not listening to his last orders, though he didn't know why until he hacked the Security logs and watched several hours of surveillance tapes; and if after that he noticed that his two friends' bickering was less harsh and more therapeutic, he was wise enough to never mention it.

34 – Coat

The best part of their jobs, all transporter operators agreed, was getting to see the conditions in which crewmen beamed down or back; but nothing could possibly beat their three-pronged negotiating committee in traditional planetary ceremonial garb – what looked like sparkling fluorescent sarongs (Fuschia's so not your color, Spock. Doctor, I believe the phrase is, You are just jealous. Leave it, both of you; between your bickering and these sequins I've already got a migraine.)

35 - Hang

After five weeks of excruciatingly mundane missions, the crew, and the captain especially, were decidedly antsy; their CMO's solution of the day for the rampant boredom was a hand-lettered sign on the First Officer's Quarters: _Out of my Vulcan mind_, _BRB_.

36 - Tang

Security Chief Giotto was devoutly thankful for Vulcan not-anger-because-that-is-an-emotion when a very, _very_ stupid ambassadorial aide slipped their captain a drugged drink one night; though how the man contracted a nasty case of boils-in-uncomfortable-places while imprisoned in the _Enterprise_'s brig was (not really) anybody's guess.

37 - Sour (spoilers for_ ST:III_)

He decided it was probably in poor taste to laugh, given Jim's heartbroken disappointment, but the bitter irony inherent in Spock appropriating _his_ skull as a receptacle for a Vulcan soul was enough to make him vow to return the katra with a few additional, _embarrassing_ memories, just as revenge.

38 – Grapes

After ascertaining that McCoy's disappearance is tied to a pretty redhead instead of alcohol poisoning, they return to their stools, whereupon Kirk finally releases his laughter; he can't help it – Spock is the only man he knows who can sit down at a bar and order a _mocha latte_ with an entirely serious expression.

39 – Palace

Their captain had been captured by the ruthless matriarchy, known for its harsh dealings with males; but when they finally broke through the shielding into the royal complex's inner chambers, Spock took one look and beamed back to the ship, ears burning, to report that the Captain had the situation…well in hand.

40 - Maid

After dozens of disastrous missions with Kirk and Spock forming a wall in front of their peaceable CMO when hell broke loose, they gaped when McCoy finally snapped that he wasn't a _girl_, thank you, and appropriated a phaser rifle, mowing down a contingent of assailants with a deadlier aim than their captain's.

41 - Queen

While Spock looked more horrified than anything else, Jim was stupidly enamored with Starfleet's latest attempt to fundraise, a Kirk-and-Spock set of teddy bears in Command gold and Science blue; but he should have known better than to complain in Vulcan hearing-range, because when he entered his cabin a week later he was greeted with a three-foot-high monstrosity of pink fur and glitter, wearing a hastily-lettered shirt proclaiming it to be the 'Dr. McCoy Grumpy Princess Bear'.

42 - King (as in, _Conscience of_)

Investigating Kirk's private past shamed his ethics, even if done for the good of the captain's command; but there was one man he knew would be equally concerned rather than disgusted with him for doing so, and he therefore requested the lift to take him to Deck Six, Sickbay.

43 – Prince

Until a mission gone wrong and a ransom demand for the Enterprise's captain was denied by Starfleet, McCoy never dreamed that their unassuming pain-in-the-neck of a First Officer had the pocket money to match the title no one knew he owned.

44 - Princess (spoilers: _Amok Time_)

McCoy wasn't quite sure what to think about Spock's Vulcan Ice Princess, until he recognised the strategic ploy of pitting Kirk and Spock against each other for what it was - but T'Pring had made a grave mistake; she was not the only one who could and would play dirty for the sake of love.

45 – Tower

Kirk gallantly tried to keep a straight face as they discussed rescue operations, but finally lost it at the Vulcan's dead-pan "Perhaps we should request the doctor 'let down his hair'?" followed by a yowled "I'm a doctor, not a frilly princess!" from high above them.

46 - Rescue  
If his superior officers wanted to amuse themselves by playing Hangman during boring department head meetings, that was their business - but he did not appreciate Spock's IM popping up on his datapadd halfway through Chekov's report, asking him to 'please affirm to the Captain that is indeed a Standard word'.

47 – Knight

When an aborted mission awarded the Captain a broken ankle and he resultantly was carried bridal-style by his First through the corridors, neither his outraged protests nor McCoy's drawled "You're too chunky to be a princess, Jim" garnered more than a second look from passing crewmen.

48 – Pawn

They hadn't left their hearts in San Francisco, as the old song went, but they'd left three far more important things: a broken pair of reading glasses, the molecular formula for transparent aluminum, and Spock's pure Vulcan mindset.

49 – Consolation

The Vians were gone, and he wasn't surprised when Jim put his communicator away and hugged him fiercely, visibly shaking – but he _was_ surprised to feel the weight of more tentative hands completing the protective circle by descending on either side of him and his captain until they were calm enough to leave.

50 – Prize

While McCoy's unique methods of keeping his patients in Sickbay were renowned ship-wide, it finally went a bit extreme when he broadcasted a free pass on physicals in return for information on who was harboring the now twice-escaped captain and first officer…


End file.
